No Good Deed
by Faye Dartmouth
Summary: So maybe that's why when Dean says Rory's name at his bachelor's party, it hits Luke like a ton of bricks.  Because this is Dean's bachelor's party, the party the night before his wedding.  His wedding to a girl who wasn't Rory.


Title: No Good Deed

A/N: I wrote this SO long ago. It's been years. But it's not doing any good on my computer, so I'm finally going to post it. It's a missing scene to the ep with Dean's bachelor party because darn it, that ep always breaks my heart. Beta'ed by geminigrl11 so long ago that I doubt she even remembers it :)

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Summary: So maybe that's why when Dean says Rory's name at his bachelor's party, it hits Luke like a ton of bricks. Because this is Dean's bachelor's party, the party the night before his _wedding_. His wedding to a girl who _wasn't Rory._

-o-

Luke doesn't know Dean Forester.

Sure, he knows who the kid is, even knows a little about him. He knows that Dean goes to Stars Hollow High and that he's way taller than any kid has a right to be and that he is downright head-over-heels for Rory. He knows the kid likes cars - at least he's pretty sure that's the case because Rory got a car from him, which Jess crashed, not so coincidentally - and he knows the kid can swing a bat with the best of them and has the only arm in Stars Hollow that can get a ball from the outfield to home base in a single throw.

Really, that's all he needs to know. Dean isn't anyone to him except an extension of Rory. _Rory and Dean_, and once he finally came to terms that Rory was actually allowed to date, he could tolerate the kid's presence and take his money just like the rest of the vaguely annoying people in town.

In fact, Dean had never really been a person to him, or at least not a person of interest. The kid seemed to be honest enough most of the time, though Luke had always suspected something somehow off underneath that cute boyfriend veneer. But it didn't matter. Dean was a nobody. Not good enough for Rory, of course, but not important enough to warrant any attention from Luke. He could smile and nod at him when he saw him in Doose's and he could predict the way he wanted his coffee but Dean was just Rory's boyfriend. Nothing more, nothing less, and if he hadn't been dating Rory, then Luke probably might not know his name at all.

So much a nonentity that it hadn't even bothered him when Lorelai told him that Rory wasn't with Dean anymore. Because Rory could be with Jess and he knew Jess. He was invested in Jess. He wanted to see Jess succeed and be happy and all that other stuff that came from being solely responsible for someone else. He hadn't even thought twice about how Dean would probably feel about it all. Sure, Dean was nuts for Rory, but it was Rory that mattered, Jess that mattered - not Dean.

So maybe that's why when Dean says Rory's name at his bachelor's party, it hits Luke like a ton of bricks. Because this is Dean's bachelor's party, the party the night before his _wedding_. His wedding to a girl who _wasn't Rory._

The damn kid shouldn't be thinking about Rory. He might be scared senseless - should have been scared out of his mind because he's too damn young to get married - and Luke could have understood fear. He could have understood pining for a lost youth, for selling out too early - any of those things, Luke would have predicted and expected and generally tolerated with a benign sigh and an avuncular clap on the shoulder.

But, no. Dean's eighteen, drunk out of his mind, and thinking of Rory.

Luke's not sure if it's compassion or just plain guilt that makes him shoo Dean's friends away before the kid makes a total ass out of himself, but it doesn't matter. He ends the party and gets Dean upstairs and that's when it gets even worse. No good deed, after all, goes unpunished. He should have kicked those kids out the minute they got in there, before Dean had the chance to say anything at all.

But Dean's wobbling and he's talking about Rory and about her hair and about how smart she is and Luke realizes that he never should have been happy at all that Jess ended up with Rory. Yeah, he loves Jess. He cares a ton for Jess. But Jess was a mess and no one knew it better than he did. He'd always thought that Rory would be good for Jess, but in the end, Jess hadn't been good for Rory.

Jess had liked her a lot, Luke knew that, but Jess had never loved her like this kid did. Jess wouldn't be drinking his way to oblivion with the only person on his mind being _Rory_. Jess would miss her, maybe always would, but Rory never defined Jess. There were other things Jess wanted, things he loved even more than he loved Rory.

Funny how that worked out. Funny how all he wanted to do was protect Rory from Dean in the beginning and, ultimately, Dean was the one who had loved her more.

The kid is too tall for the bed, but Luke settles him on it anyway. The kid would probably be appalled to be in the bed that Jess used to sleep in, considering their history with one another. But the kid is too drunk to notice and it's the closest bed to the door and he's a little afraid that if he tries to maneuver Dean any farther, they'll both end up on the floor.

Dean's still talking, still going on, and Luke takes off his shoes and wishes that someone else was here to do this. The kid's parents, Lorelai even. Lorelai had a soft spot for this kid and for the first time, Luke was starting to figure out why.

The drunken ramble is winding down. Despite his size, the kid's a lightweight, especially since he's probably never had more than a sip of beer in his life before tonight. Luke can't help but be relieved. He can't take much more. He can't stand to listen to it all knowing that Luke had never taken the time to care about him before, had never taken the time to realize that Jess' chance at happiness had come at Dean's expense.

"Why didn't she love me?"

It's the last thing the kid says before he falls asleep and it stops Luke cold, leaves him standing there with his stomach feeling sick.

Maybe Rory would have broken up with him anyway. Luke isn't so naive as to think that it wasn't possible. But he knows what it feels like to get rejected. He knows what it feels like to love someone and have them turn away - for something, for anything. He knows what that's like and Dean doesn't deserve that. Never did.

Damn it, Luke knows that there are two things a guy can do when a girl breaks his heart. He can close himself off, ignore the world, be too callous and bitter to care again. Or he can rebound - hard and fast.

Luke knows what he chose. And now he's pretty sure what route Dean took.

Watching Dean settle to sleep, for a second it reminds him of Jess, of that parental role he'd never looked for and never quite figured out. He never got it right with Jess. Dean isn't Jess and Luke will never care about Dean like he cares about Jess or about Rory or anything, but damn it, maybe he can help this kid out.

Not because he knows Dean or because there's a ton of history but because maybe some of this is sort of kind of his fault and fine, he feels guilty. He just plain feels guilty for not seeing the person inside that mammoth of a kid and realizing that Dean had a heart, too.

Maybe he can help Dean. Maybe he can talk to him, make him think twice about this wedding thing, help him figure out what he really wants before he walks down that aisle and either makes the best or worst decision of his life.

Of course, it would help a little if Luke knew what the right answer was.

With a sigh, Luke takes off his cap and scrubs his hand through his hair.

He needs to get some rest.

And hope like hell that when the morning comes, he'll be able to say the right thing.


End file.
